


what rose-like dawns unfold

by lavenderlotion



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Background Relationships, Charles Xavier in a Wheelchair, Grief/Mourning, Hope, Kissing, M/M, Magic, Magic-Users, Past Relationship(s), Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:49:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23867806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavenderlotion/pseuds/lavenderlotion
Summary: Charles was just as gorgeous as he’d always been in Erik’s eyes, and he drank his fill greedily. It’d been nearly ten years since the last time his gaze feasted on the man he loved and he took him in with a hunger previously unknown. Oh, he’d missed him—every single second of every single day, he’d missed him, and seeing him again made it feel as though he were experiencing every second of longing all at once.Gods, Erik loved him so, so much.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Comments: 18
Kudos: 41
Collections: X-Salon Challenge Works





	what rose-like dawns unfold

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the X-Salon’s AU April! I’m working on the Colossus card, and this is for the Urban Fantasy square!
> 
> (this is, predictably, all [Ethics'](https://archiveofourown.org/users/homosociality/pseuds/homosociality) fault, but also thank you for giving me this idea ig???)

The forest howled; wind sang through dancing trees, moonlit, as his coven picked their way through the woods. Erik’s magic seldom got on with nature, but Janos, an elemental who’d stumbled upon them only a few short years ago, kept the wind from beating on them too harshly. They paid their thanks at the forest’s entrance where Azazel still stood, attending to the fire burning through their offerings and only a whistle away should they need him. 

Erik hoped to the Gods they didn’t need him. 

It was supposed to be a peaceful encounter, this signing. Erik was old, and he was tired, and just the very  _ prospect _ of a final, peaceful end to a senseless war lifted his feet as he walked gently across the grass underfoot. A tree parted before him and he nodded his head in thanks to his left, where his eldest daughter walked, keeping them all from sight with a few whispered incantations.

In his growing age, Erik often wondered how such a war started, how a great coven had been split in two, kin turning on kin. How the sleeping town of  _ Westchester _ that Erik had always so greatly despised had snuck and lied and connived until it split apart a family. It was clear when he looked back on the years laid out behind him that it was all the fault of the humans, who’d offered false sanctuary to those who’d been desperate enough to fall for it, which had created such a great divide among their people they hadn’t been able to overcome it no matter how badly they’d all wanted. 

The humans had turned on those that hadn’t sided with them, and somehow that had spawned a war between two covens that raged on and on until there was bloodshed on each side and more loss than any of his nightmares had ever even hinted at. 

No, Erik had never wanted a war, but he’d never allowed his people to be hunted, either. 

He approached the forest’s edge and came to a halt within the cover of trees. The clearing before him was empty, but that wasn’t much of a shock. He didn’t need to see anyone to know whether or not that they were there, seeing as he’d long ago taken on the name  _ Magneto. _ Erik had always had a sense of metal that he’d strengthened across years of discipline, and one could not make a wheelchair without a few metal pieces. However, that was the only metal he could feel—not a surprise, either—and he knew  _ someone _ was on the other side. 

A gentle hand laid on his shoulder, and Erik turned his head to brush a kiss against the cool diamond. 

“They’re out there,” Frost, as she’d gone by for the last decade, ever since she’d lost her brother and hardened into this form, confirmed in a whisper straight into his ear. “But he’s blocking me from knowing more.”

Erik inclined his head further to the right and looked at his son. “How many?”

The air blurred where Pietro stood and when the sight of his son came back into focus, his eyes were widened. “I... I’m not sure?”

Erik felt a smile twist at his lips. His son was certainly expecting a reprimand from the way he’d already ducked his head, but Erik knew his old friend well. “That’s alright. After all, we have our tricks and they have theirs.”

Pietro nodded and fell back a step. Frost whistled as the thought formed in his mind, and a second later the telltale sound of Azazel tearing apart reality sounded from somewhere behind them—if they had no idea what they were facing, they might as well gather all their resources. Janos made a squeaking sound, and Erik shook his head at the married pair’s antics though said nothing about it. If there was one thing he had vowed to never do, it was condemn someone for their love. 

Erik let his head fall back as he took a deep breath and inhaled the soft scent of nature. Woodsy pine and the deep, rich scent of foliage and all the lovely, lighter notes of the bright, blooming flowers decorating the ground. His heart wasn’t racing within his chest and there wasn’t even a hint of fear turning his belly. Erik was as calm as he’d ever been, knowing this was all coming to an end. 

A smile crossed his lips. 

Erik didn’t turn around, though he didn’t need to. He tracked his coven sightlessly, sinking his magic into the medallions they each wore, crafted by Erik’s power during their initiation ritual. They were all with him—well, all that were left—and they knew to listen if he began speaking. 

“Kin, I thank you,” Erik began, his voice heavy, “for all you’ve done, and all you’ve given in the fight for our acceptance and our freedom. I hold each one of you in my heart and I give you my sincerest thanks for following me.”

Nothing else needed to be said, not when they all knew what today was. Erik could only pray to every deity he believed in that the call to meet had been sincere and not another trick just to slaughter more of them. In truth, Erik wasn’t sure he  _ could _ handle another trick but... Erik stepped forward, into a clearing he knew deep in his soul for it was this clearing of woods that he fell in love, lifetimes ago, and hoped that the location was sacred enough for this to be genuine. 

After all, their last meeting hadn’t taken place here. 

He walked a few feet across the plush grass, stopping near the halfway point. His coven moved behind him, flanking him, supporting him,  _ believing _ in him in a way that Erik still wasn’t sure he had ever come to deserve. He was a Witch with an affinity for metals—why the hell should  _ anybody _ have ever put their lives in his hands? 

But that was how things had gone, hadn’t they? Erik had always known that evil lurked much more dangerously in humans than in his own kind. At least when you were up against a bloodthirsty supernatural, you knew it was a monster you were facing down. There was power in the air, singing to Erik’s own magic. A strong gust of air rippled across the clearing, bringing with it a wave of fallen leaves, and another smiled tugged at Erik’s lips, knowing his family was here with him.

Not even a moment after their little shower of power, a sleek leopard shaded an entrancing deep cobalt stalked into the clearing, its tail swishing lowly behind it. Erik watched as the leopard fluidly grew into a gorgeous woman, adorned with the same colour of skin, blood-red hair shining in the moon as her eyes blinked horizontally, briefly obscuring the spots of vibrant yellow that stood out against her otherwise dark face. 

“Mystique,” Erik greeted calmly, his smile unwavering, “it’s nice to see you again.”

“Erik,” she greeted back. He didn’t miss the use of his first name, or the way her lips peeled back to reveal a gleaming grin. “I’m glad you came.”

“So far, as am I,” he allowed, unable to stop the way his smile rose at the edges at the sight of such an old friend. “How are you, my dear?”

“I’m well, Erik. And you? You look  _ old,” _ she teased, and Erik allowed a guffawing laugh to burst from his chest as he stared, a little wet-eyed, at this stranger of a woman who’d once felt more like a  _ sister _ than anyone he’d ever known. 

“I am old, dear. So are you, if only you’d look it,” he teased right back, and a smirk crawled along her face as she snickered at him. 

A warmth that Erik hadn’t felt in nearly a decade, not since the very first day he decided it had all been enough and merely took his coven and walked away, bloomed through his chest. Fighting on different sides of a war at least meant they  _ saw  _ each other, and he’d been dearly missing them all more than he would have ever admitted. 

A dark figure bled out from the shadows and stole Erik’s attention, his long body dressed in silk with a gleaming ring of metal sat on his finger and shining in the moonlight a pale, stunning silver. Erik recognized every bit of metal he’d ever crafted and he cast his metal-sense out for it’s patching partner, only to find nothing. 

“I’m so sorry,” Erik told him heavily. Darwin’s eyes—which had been pure white for some decades, ever since a ritual had filled him with more power than his mortal body had been able to handle and he’d become something  _ more _ —were filled with sorrow Erik could see from feet away. Darwin inclined his head and Erik squeezed the metal on his finger as he could do nothing else, and joined his once-brother in closing his eyes in a moment filled equally with honour and lament. 

When Erik opened his eyes, Darwin had been joined by Hank, a potion’s master with a deformity he’d wanted to cure and instead only escalated. His fur was a stunning blue under the moon’s light, and they shared a quick nod in greeting—they’d never gotten on particularly well to begin with, all those years ago. 

And then,  _ finally,  _ the metal that Erik had his power so deeply threaded through began to move forward. Its wheels met resistance from the grass below it, so Erik lifted the whole thing an inch above the ground. He felt something incredibly soft brush against the edges of his consciousness, and let his eyes fall shut as he brought the wheelchair forward and set it down only a few feet before him. 

“Erik.”

_ “Charles,”  _ he whispered, the name rolling off his tongue and undoubtedly sounding far more like a prayer than a mortal’s name ever should. He heard Frost snicker behind him and flicked his finger to have her slap her side with the beautiful hand chain she wore. When Erik finally opened his eyes, it felt like coming home. 

Charles was just as gorgeous as he’d always been in Erik’s eyes, and he drank his fill greedily. It’d been nearly ten years since the last time his gaze feasted on the man he loved and he took him in with a hunger previously unknown. Oh, he’d missed him—every single second of every single day, he’d missed him, and  _ seeing _ him again made it feel as though he were experiencing every second of longing all at once.

Gods, Erik loved him so, so much. 

“My coven has called on yours to renew our peace treaty,” Charles’ voice rang out through the clearing, strong and sure but not nearly as loud. They had that in common, it seemed. “I believe it’s time to revisit the structures of our current agreement and look to see what the future offers us both.”

“Have we not lost enough?” Erik asked, wondering if he could even handle more fighting as he let his eyes fall closed, sparing a moment for all the bright specks of life snuffed out by so much senseless violence and pure, bigoted  _ hatred.  _

Nigh a decade ago, he and Charles had met in an old, worn down warehouse where they had agreed that Erik’s coven would take its leave, remove itself from the world humans inhabited, and the land would be strictly Charles’ to rule. It meant that there would be no more fighting between their two covens, or between Erik’s coven and the humans Charles had so desperately wanted to join. 

Erik had begged, in a moment of pure fear, for Charles to come with them. Charles hadn’t, and had told Erik that his coven believed that one day they would be able to walk along with humans, share their towns and their cities and their lives. There was a future they were dreaming of and wanted to see come to light, one Erik had once fantasized about as well. 

That night there had been a desperate edge in Charles’ eyes that Erik couldn’t see this evening, and he wondered, if not for the obvious, what had changed?

And then, he wondered if it even mattered?

“There’s been losses on both sides, old friend,” Charles reminded him heavily and Erik didn’t need to look at his chair—or even the measure of distance between the two of them or the relative emptiness of the clearing—to know what he was speaking of. Erik recognized the wistful longing he saw in his own eyes, staring back at him now. 

“And we’ve stayed away, just like we promised we would,” Erik said firmly. 

“And what... Erik, what if we’re asking you to come back?” Charles' voice shook greatly with the weight of what he was asking. He stumbled a step forward, unable to hold himself back under the weight of something he’d only ever dreamed about but had never honestly imagined. 

“We’ll never be accepted into society,” Erik told him tiredly, despite the elation on Charles asking that they return. During all their years on different sides of a ridiculous fight, Charles had maintained that they couldn’t be together when they held such different beliefs. He didn’t know why he felt the need to remind Charles where he stood, but this had been an argument of theirs for nearly forty years. 

There was comfort in familiarity, after all. 

_ I know, _ Charles told him  _ in his mind, _ an onset of his magic that had always thrilled and terrified Erik in equal measure, but that he simply delighted in now as the words echoed over and over and sprung hope up his belly. “You’re right. You’ve... always been right.” 

“Just how painful was that to admit?” Erik asked with an arched brow and a teasing in a tone that he hadn’t used in decades. 

Charles tossed his head back with a laugh, and all at once Erik remembered just why he’d fallen in love with him, hidden away in this very patch of grass, during a time when they’d both thought they could save the world. “It cost me a great deal, believe me.”

Erik inclined his head and heard a few snickers from those in the clearing, the ones that had survived alongside them. “My coven has always had its arms open, you know that.”

“I do. We do. But...” Charles trailed off, and Erik tracked the age that was etched into his face, the years lining his skin and weighing him down in much the same ways Erik saw each time he looked in a mirror. “There is something to be said about the power of hope, isn't there? You were right, old friend, and I fear now is not the time for peace between the worlds.”

“What have they done,” Erik growled, and then gasped as his whole body flooded with Charles’ magic and then once again his chair was being lifted into the air to float closer, without any casting on Erik’s part. Erik let out a trembling breath when Charles took his hand, and he could do nothing other than whisper, “Charles,” into the silent night. 

“It doesn’t matter. As I’ve said, there have been losses on both sides,” Charles told him, just as heavily, squeezing his hand tightly. Erik held him back, feeling all at once like the world was falling out from under his and like he was  _ soaring.  _ “No more losses. No more  _ sides.  _ Goddesses, Erik, there never should have been to begin with.”

“No more,” Erik agreed, “so this means you’ll finally come back to me?” The words tasted vulnerable as they climbed out his throat but he didn’t even  _ think _ to keep them down, not with the calloused skin of Charles’ palm fit snugly against his own.

“I’m not the one that left,” Charles argued, but his eyes were sparkling and Erik’s heart felt so unbearably full he could do nothing but chuckle. 

“We’ll need some time to prepare Genosha,” Erik admitted, squeezing Charles' hand tightly when he asked, “but the preparations would go much smoother with your coven around, as long as you don’t mind some tight quarters at first?”

“That sounds lovely,” Charles told him, their minds melding together in a way Erik had missed desperately but hadn’t realized until this very moment. “We can be ready by sunrise.”

“We can help you pack?” Erik offered, knowing full well that he sounded eager but doing nothing more than smiling as Charles laughed, and then he bent down to kiss him among the cheering of their covens. 

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi to me on [tumblr](https://lavender-lotion.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> kudos are much appreciated, but things have been really difficult lately, and a comment, as short and sweet or as sprawling and sporadic as you can manage, would be _greatly_ appreciated! 
> 
> i run an x-men discord server! check it out [here!](https://discord.gg/3uG3VNP)


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